Facebook marketing is a challenge. There’s lots to learn and always ongoing changes so you can never simply “be done.” For those who put in the time, however, Facebook can be a magnificent marketing venue.

A key to Facebook marketing success is being good with the basics and making sure you keep up with changes.

Back a number of years ago, a popular commercial series on TV and billboards was the “Be like Mike” campaigns by Gatorade featuring NBA basketball great Michael Jordan. These commercials capitalized on the iconic nature of Michael Jordan. A rare athlete that rose to any challenge and was at the pinnacle of a spectacular career winning multiple NBA championships.

The Gatorade commercials showed clips of spectacular plays by Jordan along with children on a playground trying to emulate Michael’s moves with the rhythmic song, “I wanna be like Mike” in the background.

In the same way, Facebook marketers can learn from and find success in emulating one of the best. In Facebook marketing, it’s Mari Smith.

Often referred to as “the Queen of Facebook”, Mari Smith is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on Facebook marketing and social media. She is the author of The New Relationship Marketing and co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day. Her webinars and training courses have helped thousands greatly improve their Facebook marketing efforts.

As such, Mari is ideal for Page Admins to watch and learn from. Let’s take a look at 5 items we can learn from with a quick review of her Facebook page!

1. Maximize Marketing Use of Fan Page Cover Image

Facebook recently loosened the restrictions on what you can display on your main page cover image (view updated Facebook Guidelines). This 851 x 315 pixel size prime location now offers opportunity for displaying your web address, a call-to-action, or other great marketing opportunities.

The key is that text on the cover image cannot exceed 20%. If designed creatively, this affords pages a powerful new opportunity to communicate key pieces of information to visitors coming to the page. Mari is using her cover image as a brilliant call-to-action for her Facebook training course.

2. Use the About ‘Short Description’ Well!

Note how Mari uses the short description in her page which displays right below the profile image. Pages can display a brief short description of up to about 155 characters. Mari is able to showcase her website and twitter username in this space, giving users easy access to find and follow her on her other web assets. To update this area, go to “Edit Settings” in your Admin Panel and under “Basic Information” look for “Short Description.”

Note that some page category types, like Local Businesses, do not have the short description due to those types displaying the business hours and other relevant information.

3. Enhance Page Features with Tab Apps

Apps are great ways to extend the features of your fan page! The uses of tabs for promotions and key resources are nearly limitless.

Mari is using her top three tab spots to inform and drive traffic to her most recent webinar video replay, a special offer where users can enter for the opportunity to potentially win a free fan page critique, and a tab leading to her videos. Tabs that offer resources and incentive options can draw visitors and boost engagement on your fan page.

Now is a good time to stop and consider what you have been doing and what you should be doing with your page tabs. Some of the more common ways that apps are used on pages are for running contests and offering deals. In fact, using a third-party app is the only way a contest or deal can be run that meets Facebook’s promotion guidelines. These uses can help draw in visitors to the page and grow community size and interest.

At a minimum, pages should consider a tab with opportunity for visitors to sign-up for the company email newsletter list. As well, a combination of a deal with email sign-up can be a great way to grow your list.

Each app is accessed on your Facebook page by the thumbnail images that appear below your cover image and lead to apps in use on your page. You have the opportunity to showcase three tab apps that are always visible to visitors to your page. Make sure these capture attention! The best way to do this is to use simple fonts and shorten the call-out to a word or only a couple words.

4. Optimize the About Section for Search

After adding your Short Description, make sure to review and complete the remainder of the “About” section which has sub-sections such as the Company Overview, Description, General Information and Mission.  The About area is indexed by search engines and used by Facebook’s Graph Search, so make sure it contains your keywords.  The exact sub-sections can vary depending on the page category you have chosen.

Mari makes great use of her “About area” by including key words, powerful comments about her as stated by leading resources, and quick links to a number of her current product offerings. Users have no doubt about who she is, her authority, and where they can go to see and learn more.

5. Begin Using #Hashtags in Posts!

Facebook just announced and opened up the use of hashtags in early June. Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links in posts on your Page, and help people find posts about topics they’re interested in.

When people click a hashtag, they’ll see a feed of posts that have been shared that are also using this hashtag. Marketers can begin to identify key hashtags for their products and industry, and weave them into posts. Below, Mari uses a number of hashtags relevant to her post. The use of these hashtags means that others reviewing a tag may then also see her post, giving her post extended life and value.

Summary:

Be like Mari! (sing the jingle. repeat.)

While we could outline additional areas that can add value and are in use on Mari’s Facebook Page, these five items give a solid foundation for any Facebook Page Admin to review on their own Facebook page.

So what are you waiting for?  Go check your page and be…[sing again].

About Mike Gingerich
Mike Gingerich is co-founder of TabSite, a leading Facebook page management software for contests and promotions. He leads the Product Development Team. Follow Mike on Twitter @Mike_Gingerich.

Be Like Mari: 5 Tips for Facebook Page Admins from Mari Smith’s Page is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Following are examples of searches that I ran to learn more about the Facebook Fans of Jon Loomer Digital. Clearly, some of this information is more valuable than others.

Feel free to run similar searches to learn more about the people who like your Facebook Page!

1. Pages liked by people who like…

This is what they call “overlap.”

2. Pages liked by people who like [two pages]…

How about another qualifier! Now it gets interesting…

3. Favorite interests of people who like…

These are the things you should add to the Precise Interests area when targeting your Facebook ads.

Social Media obviously isn’t a surprise. But Photography and Travel? Interesting!

4. Groups of people who like…

Maybe you should join some of these groups?

5. Pages liked by Marketers who like…

That’s right, you can filter by occupation. Valuable!

6. Pages liked by people over the age of 25 who like…

Okay, now let’s focus only on people over the age of 25…

7. Pages liked by women who like…

Or filter by gender!

8. Pages liked by men over the age of 25 who live in Australia and who like…

Okay, let’s combine four different qualifiers now…

9. Favorite interests of women over the age of 25 who live in United Kingdom and who like…

And one more…

10. Places in Denver, Colorado visited by people who like…

My people like sports and fish!

11. Restaurants in Denver, Colorado visited by people who like…

Would be great for brick and mortar businesses.

12. Movies liked by people who like…

Sure, this may not be particularly helpful for my brand. But what if my business was in the entertainment industry?

13. Games played by people who like…

Again, this may be more helpful for a company that built a Facebook game. And you’d probably want to use more qualifiers like gender and age.

My Fans love Criminal Case!

14. Favorite music of people who like…

Happy to see there are no boy bands at the top!

Your Turn

Any other searches that you’ve found valuable that you’d like to add to the list? Let me know in the comments below!

How to Use Facebook Graph Search to Learn About Your Fans is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Here’s a simple example, using the hashtag #facebookmarketing:

If you were to click on that hashtag, you’d see all discussions (public or that fit what you are meant to see due to privacy settings) that used it:

As mentioned earlier, hashtags do not overrule privacy settings. What you see may be different than what I see. You’ll see all public conversations and those the author allows you to see.

Brands have significant opportunities here. But there is also an opportunity to screw it up. Here are a few thoughts on brands using hashtags on Facebook…

1. Don’t Overuse Hashtags

Understand that the typical user is seeing these for the first time. They aren’t Twitter pros. They are going to be confused. If every other word is a hashtag, it’s going to be annoying.

Use one or two. Don’t write a paragraph of hashtags. It may increase reach, but it’s spammy and you won’t get the positive response you’re looking for.

2. Use Hashtags to Add Value

Have the reader in mind first and your business second. If you’re thinking about the reader, the hashtag will enhance your post. If you are thinking about your business first, it will be a distraction.

If your post is about a single topic, create or use a hashtag related to it for further discussion. It must be relevant.

Understand that if your post doesn’t add value, you are simply adding noise to that hashtag’s stream. And the hashtag itself adds noise to your post.

3. Keep Hashtags Short

It needs to be something that is easy to read and remember. Avoid slang and hard-to-spell words.

While short is better, abbreviations could create issues as well. For example, posts will get split up between #fbmarketing and #facebookmarketing. Or #fbads and #facebookads.

Use the hashtag that makes the most sense. If you want to create a conversation, keep it unique. If you want to join a conversation, use a popular one that is relevant.

4. Most Special Characters Don’t Work

Don’t use spaces or special characters in your hashtag. The linkable portion will stop before that character. The only exception is the underscore (“_”).

While using capital letters will make your hashtag easier to read, they aren’t case sensitive.

5. Consider Niche vs. Popular

I fully expect most brands to latch onto the most popular hashtags. The goal will be Reach. They will be abused. And those streams will be spammed like crazy.

Again, think about this from a user’s perspective. Why would you follow a popular hashtag filled with spam and irrelevant content? You wouldn’t.

So feel free to create your own. Niche is okay. The purpose should either be to organize your own content under a hashtag or to reach a very specific group of users with your content.

How Are You Using Hashtags?

This is just a sampling of thoughts around how you could and shouldn’t use Facebook hashtags for your brand. How will you be using them?

Facebook Hashtags for Brands: What You Need to Know is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Danny’s a friend of the show and a friend of mine. He sipped a Sleeman’s Original while I downed a Moose Drool. And, of course, we got drunk on social media.

Topics in this episode include:

• Focus on customer vs. influencer
• 4 Ms of Influence Marketing (Make, Manage, Monitor, Measure)
• Facebook and micro targeting
• How targeting is increasingly creepy, freaky and helpful
• Today’s Marketer and the Changing Face of Purchase Decisions
• Buy Danny’s book (co-authored with Sam Fiorella), Influence Marketing

Here are a few places you can — and MUST — find Danny:

• DannyBrown.me
• @DannyBrown
• InfluenceMarketingBook.com
• ArCompany

Take a listen below. You also have several ways to access the Pubcast:

• iTunes
• Stitcher
• Libsyn

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review! That’s how I reach more people. Thanks!

Creepy, Freaky and Helpful: Influence Marketing with Danny Brown is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Last week, in a post on this blog called 5 Reasons You Should Use Power Editor to Create Facebook Ads, you learned how Power Editor can help you supercharge your Facebook ad campaigns. The post highlighted the fact that Power Editor helps you create Facebook ads that are more targeted, more relevant and more effective.

One of the best features of Power Editor is that it also allows you to send ads directly to people on their smartphones. That’s right, you can bypass desktop ads and have them sent directly to people’s smartphones.

But before we dive into how to use this feature, let’s take a look at why mobile is such an important channel in the first place:

• Data from SocialCode shows that ads that appear in Facebook’s mobile News Feed get more clicks (0.79%) than ads that appear in desktop News Feeds (0.33%).
• The same data shows that the number of Likes each 1,000 mobile impressions generated was also higher on mobile, averaging 0.62% compared to 0.22% on desktop feed.
• And, according to Mashable, Facebook was able to generate 2.5 times as much revenue from mobile ads than desktop feed ads for the same number of impressions.

Ready to get started with a mobile ad campaign on Facebook?

Facebook has learned that integrating ads directly into a user’s flow of activities works better than banners and pop-up ads.

Even though these native ads may be somewhat controversial, most users don’t object to the system. Below is an example of what I’m talking about. On the left is the native ad for a mobile app and on the right is the landing page encouraging the person who clicked on the Facebook ad to download the mobile app:

According to an article on MIT Technology Review, executives at Facebook knew that the native ad format was a risky venture. But, as you can see from the facts and figures mentioned above, the ads really work.

What’s more, the ads have exploded the myth that mobile ads are too small to make an impact. Facebook’s mobile ads take up a larger part of the screen than ads aimed at desktop users, which is one reason they get so many clicks.

And tests by Facebook found that the insertion of ads reduced comments, likes and other interaction with newsfeed updates by only 2%, which was considered a small decline considering the revenue possibilities.

How to Get Your Ads into Mobile News Feeds

My good acquaintance Amy Porterfield has written a terrific post on Entrepreneur outlining the steps involved in running a Facebook mobile ad. It’s worth taking a look at her article.

In a nutshell, here are the steps she outlined in the post:

• Everything Starts with Power Editor: As of this writing, in order to run Facebook mobile ads, you’ll have to use Power Editor, which is a browser plugin designed to help people with the more advanced aspects of Facebook
• Page Post Ads: When set-up with Power Editor, these ads can appear directly in the news feed and can include photos, offers and more. Using this system, you can reach users via mobile, desktop or both.
• Promoted Posts: These look like the page post ads in the newsfeed, and you can buy them through the promote button in the status update box on your page or use the Power Editor.
• Sponsored Stories: These ads may show up in the news feed under the heading “Pages You May Like.” They’re used to promote activity to your fans’ friends with the intention of attracting like-minded people.
• Mobile App Install Ads: These ads display in the mobile news feed. Use Mobile App Install Ads if your objective is to drive installs of your company’s mobile app. They click directly to your app download page in the iOS iTunes app store or Google Play store.

Action Steps for You

If you’re interested in running a mobile ad campaign on Facebook, here’s what you should do.

1. Develop a promotion. Country Outfitter developed a promotion encouraging people to Like and share information about five pairs of boots. Once users Liked their favorite pair, they could register to win them.
2. Create a mobile landing page. There’s no point in creating a mobile ad unless you have a mobile landing page to greet people. Don’t send people to a regular landing page. Instead, think mobile first and direct them to a mobile optimized page.
3. Run a Page Post, a Promoted Post or a Sponsored Story. Once you’ve done steps 1 and 2, it’s time to choose which kind of ad you’d like to run. There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all, so pick which kind of ad best suits your needs.
4. Test Your Way to Success. Once you’ve run one campaign, keep that campaign as your “control.” From there, you can A/B split test a second campaign. If the second campaign gets better results than the first campaign, then the second campaign becomes your control. Your goal is to always try to top the results of your control. By doing so, you’ll be in a constant state of optimization, which leads to better and better results.

The Bottom Line on Facebook Mobile Ads

The truth is that most businesses are still a little intimidated by mobile. But you can use that to your advantage — if your competitor is still sitting on the sidelines, then that’s an opportunity to jump in and get a head start.

By the time they’ve figured out how to get started, you’ll have already acquired some of their best customers. And isn’t that the idea?

About Jamie Turner
Jamie Turner is the CEO of 60 Second Communications, a full-service ad agency, and is the Founder of the 60 Second Marketer. He is the co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile” and is a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.

How to Run a Mobile Ad Campaign on Facebook is a post from: JonLoomer.com

These are all paid tools, though some do have free plans. Some of the links below are affiliate links. You should know that I only use affiliate links for products I use and recommend. Ultimately, I’ll list the tools I think will be most useful for you.

Note that there are many other tools that I admire that aren’t on this list, but these are the tools I currently use most often.

Facebook Advertising Tools

My favorite tool of all is Power Editor, but that’s really cheating. It’s a free tool and it’s even created by Facebook. The purpose of this post is to focus on the third party tools that I use.

I’ve only recently begun to tinker with third party tools to assist with advertising. You should definitely check these out…

Perfect Audience
This is a tool I recently started using to help create and monitor my own FBX (Facebook retargeting) ads. FBX is a very powerful way to target users with ads on Facebook who previously visited your website.

Perfect Audience and AdRoll (next on the list) are the only two services I’m aware of that are available at a budget that fits small businesses. You can even try either one out for free with a $60 free trial. Read more about Perfect Audience here.

AdRoll
I’ve been trying out both Perfect Audience and AdRoll for about a month now. Both are very similar with excellent UI to easily set up FBX. The one advantage of AdRoll right now is that they offer the ability to create News Feed FBX ads. I’m sure this is coming from Perfect Audience soon as well.

Learn more about AdRoll here.

PropelAd
This service alerts you when posts are performing especially well so that you can easily promote them through the PropelAd interface. PropelAd also isn’t nearly as limited as the typical Promoted Post since you are allowed to promote posts that target Fans only, for example.

I’ll be writing more about this service soon!

Facebook Publishing Tools

More often than not, I publish my posts directly within Facebook. But as my strategy gets more sophisticated, I’ve found a couple of tools to be very beneficial.

PostRocket
PostRocket is like Buffer, but with a twist. Once you add a post to your queue, PostRocket will determine the best possible time of day to publish it based on user activity. There are also some nice photo filtering features baked in.

PostPlanner
I recently started using PostPlanner more for two reasons: 1) Bulk scheduling and 2) the Content Engine.

Bulk scheduling is important to me because I repost old, evergreen content. This is a very laborious process when done through Facebook. But it’s much easier with PostPlanner since you can upload a CSV file that includes all of your posts.

The Content Engine is a nice addition since it surfaces popular blog posts based on keywords that I may want to share. This is the type of tool that may eventually replace my Google Reader habits when that product is phased out.

Facebook App Tools

ShortStack
Oh, come on… You didn’t expect anything else here, did you?

I’ve been using ShortStack almost exclusively for about a year and a half now. I absolutely love it. Great, easy-to-use product, excellent interface and awesome people. I use it for creating contests or any of my other custom tabs.

Here’s an old review that I wrote about ShortStack. Some of it is undoubtedly outdated now, but it will still give you an understanding of why I use and love it.

Facebook Metrics Tools

AgoraPulse
Facebook Insights is a valuable source of information, but it’s also a major pain to use. That’s why a tool like AgoraPulse is so helpful.

AgoraPulse can also be used for publishing and scheduling, building apps and a whole lot more. But I use it most for easy viewing of my Facebook analytics.

Your Turn

These are the tools that I use that make my Facebook marketing efforts a whole lot easier.

What tools do you use? List them in the comments below!

Tools I Use: Facebook Advertising, Publishing, Apps and Metrics is a post from: JonLoomer.com

I had hoped to write a full explanation of this by now. But the problem is that the facts that are known are few. What Facebook announced is vague and ambiguous. And what others have editorialized is either regurgitated from Facebook or quite possibly completely inaccurate.

As such, the purpose of this post isn’t to shed more light on the subject. It’s not to regurgitate what is already known. But to emphasize the key points that are left unclear about this upcoming change.

Before we get to these questions, let me hop on my soapbox for a moment. I find it troubling that no one is asking these questions. No one is investigating these details. No one is providing any real insight.

It’s a phenomena consistent with the cookie-cutter approach to marketing that so many are endorsing. Accept the words you’ve read. Don’t ask questions. Don’t customize for your needs. Complain when you don’t get results.

Enough of that. Let’s get to the questions I wish others would ask about the new Facebook ad creation process…

1. Which Ad Units Are Going Away?

Here is a portion of that Facebook announcement:

In the next six months, we plan to streamline the number of ad units from 27 to fewer than half of that while mapping all of our ads to the business objectives marketers care about…

And later…

This includes removing the Questions product for Pages because marketers can simply ask a question in a post and get answers in comments.

It also means removing the online Offer product because marketers have found that using a Page post link ad is a more effective way to drive people to deals on their websites.

That’s all we really know about specific products. And it really doesn’t tell us much of anything.

First, the Questions product isn’t a Facebook ad unit. It’s going away? Yeah, okay. That isn’t shocking. But it really has nothing to do with this news.

Second, the fact that online Offers are going away sucks. I don’t quite understand that. But on the flip side, online Offers don’t represent a full product either. Offline Offers will remain.

So, what is actually going away? If you listen to Gizmodo, it’s all of the Sponsored Stories.

From Gizmodo:

In fact, Facebook is getting rid of quite a few of its many ad formats. The current 27 flavors of marketing will be whittled down to a number about half that size. But the Sponsored Story, which made it seem to friends as though you were encouraging them to buy various cleaning products and/or hot singles in their area, is perhaps the most notable.

The author is downright giddy that these “obnoxious” ad units are going away. But if you read the announcement from Facebook, she appears to be jumping the gun here.

Include the best of sponsored stories in all ads. Previously, to get the best social context available, advertisers had to purchase sponsored stories in addition to ads. In the future, for example, when you create a Page post photo ad, we will automatically add social context to boost performance and eliminate the extra step of creating sponsored stories.

So now, all ads will have a social context. As a result, all ads would apparently behave like a Sponsored Story — or contain a Sponsored Story-like element.

In other words, I think that author from Gizmodo is going to be disappointed.

2. Are Ad Units Really Going Away?

The confusion in #1 leads me here. Let’s say that Facebook is taking away the ability to individually purchase Sponsored Stories. Yet, all ads going forward will consist of a social element (your friend commented on, liked or shared a post; your friend liked a Page; your friend installed an app; your friend checked in to a location; your friend claimed an Offer; your friend is attending an event).

Are these ad units really going away? Or is the ability to select them simply going away?

I love Sponsored Stories. I find them to be powerful. If they completely go away, that may be a huge mistake. But if they are simply being absorbed into every ad unit going forward…

Probably not that big of a deal.

3. What Actually Changes?

Everything I’ve read talks about streamlining the ad creation process so that advertisers can focus on objectives rather than the overwhelming choice between 27 ad units.

But if you look at the self-serve ad tool today, the current ad creation flow is already focused on objectives…

So what, exactly, changes here? Details, please…

4. How Does This Impact Power Editor?

This is the big one for me. The self-serve ad tool and Power Editor have long lived independently. The self-serve ad tool is simplified for the mainstream while Power Editor and the ads API are for the advanced marketer who likes all of the additional options to micro-manage their ad targeting.

Will these changes impact Power Editor? Because if they do, this could potentially be a very bad thing for the advertisers who spend the most money on Facebook ads.

I don’t want to jump to conclusions here. But if advertising options are being streamlined across the board, it would seem that Facebook is catering to the lowest common denominator of advertisers. And the potential for alienating advanced advertisers could be huge.

Answers, Please!

The problem, of course, is that I don’t know the answer to these questions. I can only speculate. As a result, I am hand-tied regarding how well I can prepare you for these changes.

How do you interpret Facebook’s announcement? How do you expect advertising to change? Let me know in the comments below!

Facebook Streamlining Ad Offerings: 4 Outstanding Questions is a post from: JonLoomer.com

I peppered Josh with questions about to make my own Facebook publishing more efficient while sipping a Longboard Lager.

Topics in this episode include:

• Is it smart to repost old content?
• The most underrated component of EdgeRank
• Frequency vs. Distribution
• Using PostPlanner to bulk upload evergreen content
• Content Engine vs. Google Reader
• Post Gating vs. News Feed Targeting

Here are some links that were mentioned:

• Trending Content
• Should you repost old content?
• 7 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Apps Without Spending a Dime
• Schedule Facebook posts with PostPlanner for FREE!

Make sure you check out PostPlanner’s awesome Facebook content posting tool. I’ve started using it for bulk scheduling, but will also be testing it out for content discovery.

Take a listen below. You also have several ways to access the Pubcast:

• iTunes
• Stitcher
• Libsyn

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review! That’s how I reach more people. Thanks!

Unique Facebook Content Strategies with Josh Parkinson [Podcast] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Today’s marketers are dealing with a shift in consumer behaviors in media consumption.

Traditionally, marketers have been using top-of-mind awareness to reach customers. At its core, top-of-mind awareness relies on the ability to reach large numbers of potential consumers efficiently.

Doing so used to be a relatively straightforward scheme. When Americans had just three major television networks, it was easy to reach large swaths of potential buyers with a single commercial. When overwhelming majorities of American households subscribed to the local newspaper and tuned into local radio stations, businesses with even very small trade areas could reach the majority of their prospective customers with a few, targeted media purchases.

Those days are over.

The fragmentation of the media landscape in the past twenty years is remarkable. In the era of just three main television networks, buying advertising time wasn’t a particularly difficult task.

Now, one of the toughest jobs in the world — and most certainly one of the most difficult and thankless in marketing — is media buying, because there are countless ways to reach audiences. This is especially true in social, where new advertising opportunities (on Facebook and beyond) are being introduced seemingly every day.

But we can’t use yesterday’s strategy with today’s new ad vehicles.

Top-of-mind awareness requires companies to send messages consistently, but today’s consumers besieged with every company of every type, size, and description jostling for attention, making pleas to friend, follow, subscribe, read, watch, and click. Unimaginative marketers attempt to stand out with message frequency, or by exchanging bribes for attention (resulting in an explosion of Facebook contests and giveaways, among other tactics).

We are in serious danger of making the same mistakes in social media that we’ve made in traditional marketing. And, as noted by Jeff Rohrs, ExactTarget’s vice president of Marketing Research and Education, all consumers “have to do is just ignore messages over a period of time, and they slowly get suppressed by Facebook. You simply won’t show up anymore, even if your brand is still technically ‘liked.’”

So where do we, as marketers, go from here?

I’d like to suggest that instead of using social media to blast your message at your customers, that you become a Youtility instead. A Youtility is being truly useful to your customer which will create a customer for life instead of a one-time sale.

Not “utility,” because a utility is a faceless commodity. Youtility is marketing upside down. Instead of marketing that’s needed by companies, Youtility is marketing that’s wanted by customers. Youtility is massively useful information, provided for free, that creates long term trust and kinship between your company and your customers.

The difference between helping and selling is just two letters. But those two letters now make all the difference. Making your company useful without expectation of an immediate return is in direct opposition to the longstanding principles of successful marketing, and that’s a good thing.

How is your company dealing with the shift in consumer behavior and media consumption?

Excerpted from Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype by Jay Baer, published in late June by Portfolio/Penguin. See YoutilityBook.com for other resources.

About Jay Baer
Jay Baer is a hype-free, tequila-loving social media strategist, speaker, and coach. He’s the author of Convince & Convert, one of the planet’s most popular social media blogs.

Repeating the Mistakes of the Past? Use Social to Be Useful, Not Just Promotional is a post from: JonLoomer.com

If your experience with Facebook ads revolves around clicking the “Boost Post” or “Get More Likes” buttons, this post is for you.

If the only Facebook ad campaign you’ve created was through the self-serve ad tool, it’s time you start playing with the big boys (and girls).

Stop doing what you’ve been doing. You’re wasting your time and throwing away money. You are shielding yourself from the true power of Facebook advertising.

You need to create all of your campaigns within Power Editor.

Power Editor is a browser plugin created by Facebook as a way to manage and bulk edit ads. Here are five reasons you should be using it…

1. Features

Partner Categories are only available within Power Editor!

The self-serve ad tool was created for the mainstream marketer. The mainstream marketer isn’t ready for more advanced tools and features. As a result, new features are first rolled out to Power Editor and the ads API (utilized by third party tools) before surfacing on the self-serve ad tool (if ever).

You are too sophisticated for the self-serve ad tool. You want the most powerful features available. You are ready for Power Editor.

Since this is constantly changing, I’m not going to make grand proclamations about what isn’t currently available in the self-serve ad tool. But I will say that the following features are examples of some of the things that weren’t available to the mainstream while first being rolled out to Power Editor:

• Custom Audiences
• Lookalike Audiences
• Saved Audiences
• Partner Categories
• Conversion Tracking
• Conversion Specs
• Domain Sponsored Stories
• Sponsored Search Results

That’s a ton of features! If you aren’t using Power Editor, you have no idea what you’re missing.

2. Placement

Desktop News Feed only? Heck yes!

When you click the “Boost Post” button or create a Facebook campaign within the self-serve ad tool, you have absolutely no control over where the ad appears.

Within Power Editor, you can select any of the following:

• All Facebook
• Desktop
• News Feed (Desktop and Mobile)
• News Feed (Desktop Only)
• Mobile Only

Any advertiser worth their salt knows that it’s important to split test ads. And a big part of split testing is placement.

The success rate of ads is often drastically different depending on the placement. And the cost also differs accordingly.

So what you should be doing is split testing your ads to determine which placements are most efficient, leading to the lowest cost per desired action.

If you are using Power Editor, you can do this. Otherwise, no dice!

3. Bidding

If you click the “Boost Post” button, you have no control over your bid. It’s automatically Optimized CPM. In fact, you even have very limited options for budgets (you probably know these costs have gone up!).

You could promote the same post through Power Editor and use Optimized CPM, CPM or CPC. You could set your bid for CPM and CPC. You could set a budget of whatever you want.

When setting bids within the self-serve ad tool, your options look something like this:

That’s it.

Within Power Editor, it looks like this:

Your options are as follows:

• CPC
• CPM
• Optimized CPM
• Automatically Optimize for Actions
• Manually Configure Objectives and Bids
• Overwrite Default Conversion Specs

That’s right, you have far more freedom to customize your bid — and determine exactly what it is you’re bidding on — with Power Editor.

4. Targeting

When you create an ad within the self-serve ad tool, you have most — but not all — of the targeting options available within Power Editor. As mentioned earlier, some of Power Editor’s features are bound to move over to the mainstream eventually. But you can’t currently do the following within the self-serve ad tool:

• Create a Custom Audience (you can select one, but it must be created within Power Editor)
• Create a Lookalike Audience
• Target by Partner Categories

If you click that “Boost Post” button to promote a post, of course, you have minimal control over targeting. In fact, you can’t even target Fans-only now.

If you instead promote that post through Power Editor, you can focus your ad spend on a very specific audience.

5. Bulk Ad Creation

Saved Audiences save a lot of time!

You can create a single ad within the self-serve ad tool without much problem. The options are limited, but you can get it done pretty quickly and painlessly.

That said, you should be creating multiple campaigns. You should be creating up to dozens of ad variations. You probably know by now that this is a huge pain within that self-serve ad tool.

Not so difficult within Power Editor. The main reason for this is that duplicating ads takes very little time. And you can use Saved Audiences to easily segment your targeting so that you don’t need to waste countless minutes picking countries, languages, interests and more.

Are You Using Power Editor?

It’s no secret that Power Editor is clunky and not particularly user friendly. But if you’re serious about your Facebook advertising, this should be the only way you create ad campaigns (or with a third party tool that utilizes the ads API).

Do you use Power Editor? What other benefits am I forgetting?

5 Reasons You Should Use Power Editor to Create Facebook Ads is a post from: JonLoomer.com

If you aren’t, well… you aren’t. You’re undoubtedly wasting that valuable aforementioned time and money. No one wants that.

The “Sponsored Story” is an abused and misunderstood phrase that has long been used interchangeably — and incorrectly — with all forms of Facebook advertising. The truth is that this is a specific type of advertising.

While there is a very simple thread connecting them, there are also many different types of Sponsored Stories. Many that you’ve likely never used before.

The purpose of this post is to explain what Sponsored Stories are, the types available, why they are valuable and how you can start creating them today.

What Are Sponsored Stories?

Let’s start by breaking this phrase up into the two separate parts and define them independently.

Sponsored = Advertising
Stories = Created when a user interacts with another user, Page, place or app

Stories are generated when a user likes a Page; likes, comments on or shares a post; checks in to a business; claims an Offer; answers a Question; uses an app; or RSVPs to an Event.

You see countless organic stories in your News Feed or Ticker every day. When friends interact with other friends and privacy settings allow for you to see it, a Story is generated for you. Similar stories are generated whenever these friends interact with Pages, Places and Apps.

Here’s an example of a story that is generated when a friend likes a Page:

Like many of the stories you see in your News Feed, the example above is organic. I see it immediately after the action was taken. In this case, when my friend liked this Page, I immediately saw the story in my News Feed.

While most of these stories are organic, they can also be promoted to create Sponsored Stories. This assures that friends see a story beyond the short window after it was immediately created.

Types of Sponsored Stories

There are many types of Sponsored Stories. Since Facebook is constantly growing and changing, you can assume this is an incomplete list.

• Page Like: Story generated when a friend likes a Page
• Check-in: Story generated when a friend checks in to a business
• Wall Post: Story generated when a friend posts to a Page wall
• Post Like: Story generated when a friend likes a Page post
• Post Comment: Story generated when a friend comments on a Page post
• Post Share: Story generated when a friend shares a Page post
• Offer Claim: Story generated when a friend claims an Offer
• Question Vote: Story generated when a friend answers a Question
• App: Story generated when a friend uses a Facebook app
• Event attendee: Story generated when a friend attends an Event
• Domain: Story generated when a friend shares a link from a specific domain

So, there you go. There are 11 different opportunities to create Facebook Sponsored Stories.

Here’s an example of a Page Like Sponsored Story:

There is little difference between this and the organic Page Like story shown earlier. The ad includes a “Sponsored” label. As you can see, the story was created several days ago, but the ad still appears in my News Feed.

Why You Should Create Sponsored Stories

Now let’s talk about saving time and money by creating easy and efficient advertising.

Advertisers spend countless hours obsessing over copy and imagery in their ads. If they’re doing it correctly, they split test and create dozens of variations to find what works best.

When you create Sponsored Stories, however, your options are limited. You’re simply promoting the story that a user already generated.

You don’t control the imagery. You don’t control the copy.

Even the targeting options are limited since only friends of the user creating the story will see it. Privacy settings apply even when a story is sponsored.

So the first reason you should create Sponsored Stories: They are freaking easy.

The second reason: They are freaking effective.

The reason they’re effective makes a whole lot of sense. Which of these ads would you be most likely to click on?

1. Ad #1: Ad from a company you’ve never heard of touting its own product
2. Ad #2: Ad promoting your friend’s interaction with that company or product

I’m pretty sure you’d be more likely to click on Ad #2. And the results back it up.

Sponsored Stories work due to the power of social proof. Your friend liked a page, interacted with a post, used an app or attended an event. You should, too!

How to Create Sponsored Stories

Let’s get this out of the way first: Yes, you can create Sponsored Stories with the self-serve ad tool. Just select “Get More Page Likes,” “Promote Page Posts” or “See Advanced Options” and Sponsored Stories are automatically generated.

You could do this. But don’t.

Instead, you need to use Power Editor, a browser plugin. While it may not be user friendly, you have far more control over targeting, placement and bidding when you use Power Editor. And most of the great new ad features and options go there first.

When you create an ad in Power Editor, simply select “Sponsored Story” from the “Type” drop-down. Then choose which type of Sponsored Story you’re creating.

It’s really pretty easy!

How Will You Use Sponsored Stories?

Make no mistake, I love Sponsored Stories. I constantly have a Page Like Sponsored Story and a Domain Sponsored Story running. It’s a very easy way to constantly drive a new relevant audience to you.

Do you run Sponsored Stories? What creative ways are you using them? Let me know in the comments below!

Everything You Need to Know About Facebook Sponsored Stories is a post from: JonLoomer.com

On this episode of the Social Media Pubcast, sponsored by JoBarnesOnline.com, we talked about the following topics:

• Marketing schemes to get free beer (seriously!)
• 4 easy things you can do today to get involved in mobile
• Apps and WordPress themes to help you go mobile

Throughout this episode, a few links and tools were mentioned. Here they are:

This week’s episode is sponsored by JonBarnesOnline.com. Download the free 93-page eBook on Facebook marketing!

• WPTouch WordPress plugin
• Genesis Framework WordPress Theme
• Synthesis WordPress Hosting
• Contact Jon about Amazon Hosting
• Go Mobile book by Jamie

Make sure you follow Jamie’s work at the following places:

• 60SecondMarketer.com
• 60SecondCommunications.com

Cheers!

P.S. FREE 93 Page eBook!: Go to JoBarnesOnline.com/fbebook to get your free 93-page eBook featuring Jon, Mari Smith, Amy Porterfield and others. Enjoy!

Take a listen below. You also have several ways to access the Pubcast:

• iTunes
• Stitcher
• Libsyn

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review! That’s how I reach more people. Thanks!

4 Steps to Going Mobile with Jamie Turner [Podcast] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Here’s this week’s question from Brad Terry:

Hey Jon, do you have any general guidelines for re-posting? I use Facebook for my photography business and would like to occasionally re-post photos to my timeline. I don’t want to seem too “aggressive” or appear desperate for attention(though I am).

I absolutely think you should repost old content. I benefit from it. But you need to do so strategically.

To understand why it is beneficial to repost old content, I’ve got to hammer home an old point. Only half of your Fans are on Facebook every day, and those 50% are only there for 30-60 minutes. EdgeRank or not, the math isn’t in favor of many seeing your post.

So you could reshare an old post and expect to reach a completely different audience the second time around, especially if you choose a different time of day. That doesn’t mean you should post the same thing multiple times in a 24-hour period though.

Here’s what I recommend you and Brad do:

1. Make a list of your evergreen content
2. Get to know your Fans — where they are from and when they interact
3. Schedule your evergreen content during pre-designated, off-times
4. Reshare that content freshly and uniquely
5. Use a tool like PostPlanner to bulk schedule your posts

Take a look! And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel!

Should You Repost Old Content to Facebook? [VLOG #22] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

I’ve been dedicated to analyzing Facebook’s news feed for almost three years now. I’ve been using and understanding the news feed since it’s launch when I was a Freshman in college.

A lot has changed, but one thing remains the same: complexity continues to arise within this finite space.

For brands, understanding this complexity and leveraging it to your advantage provides the greatest source of “free” opportunity. However, many brands don’t really understand how this ecosystem works, why it works the way it does and what to do about it.

I’m going to help break it down for brands with this post.

A Brand’s Competition

Brands don’t often directly compete in users’ news feeds with their standard competition. A brand like Nike isn’t competing with Reebok, Adidas and Puma in the news feed. Nike is going to be competing against brands that typical Nike fans tend to Like.

We analyzed Nike and found that it competes against Pages like Carmelo Anthony, Lady Gaga, New York Yankees and Mad Men. Understanding what these four Pages are doing (and not doing) can provide incredible insight into opportunity for Nike.

If Lady Gaga is releasing a new album and publishes a sneak peek on her Facebook Page, it should be monitored and avoided by news feed competitors to insure their next update has the best opportunity for success. It doesn’t matter if Reebok or Adidas just published content because their fans are less likely to overlap with Nike.

Why Care About Fan Overlap?

Facebook has another touch of opportunity by displaying topics that other Pages are “talking about.”

If Carmelo Anthony has a big performance (he also happens to be sponsored by Jordan, a Nike subsidiary) it would be in Nike’s best interest to publish content congratulating or highlighting the performance. Due to a high fan overlap, Nike could jump into the news feeds of Carmelo Anthony fans (as well as their fans) by talking about a topic they’re both interested in.

This provides free viral exposure if it acquires enough Shares to be relevant. A delicate and complex ecosystem enables this opportunity to occur if the marketer is paying attention to their brand’s actual “competition.”

Family & Friends’ Activity Patterns

To add to this complexity, a brand must compete with a fan’s family and friends’ activity patterns.

For some users, family and friends will have heavy post frequencies (typically younger users), while older users may have lower post frequencies. The times of day also fluctuate for different groupings. For a brand attempting to enter the news feed, this provides a moving target of complexity.

If a brand has a strong digital voice, it has the ability to jump into the news feed at will regardless of competition from family and friends’ patterns. For brands with weak digital voices, optimal results will occur by publishing in between opportunities.

Competitive EdgeRank

Sometimes brands’ posts don’t get as much exposure as expected. This is due to Competitive EdgeRank.

Every object that’s in the news feed has an EdgeRank value that is relative to the individual. Some days, the user may experience a flood of above average objects, which causes any average objects (especially from lower Affinity pages) to lose visibility.

We tend to see this in the summer on weekends of weddings with Facebook users experiencing a flood of family and friends’ wedding photographs and status updates.

Content Is King

With all of this being said, stellar content will be rewarded with exposure and success. However, understanding the intricacies of the news feed can help optimize for the more typical content your brand usually publishes.

As a brand, keep your eye on high quality content and keep in mind the ecosystem of the news feed to provide an additional advantage for your social strategy.

Do you focus on brand overlap? Which pages are your competition? Let us know your approach in the comments below!

About Chad Wittman
Chad Wittman is the founder of EdgeRank Checker. Previously a VP of Social at a local agency, he quit his job to dedicate himself to analyzing how EdgeRank impacts brands on Facebook.

Competitive EdgeRank: The Delicate Ecosystem of Facebook’s News Feed is a post from: JonLoomer.com

If you aren’t familiar with conversion specs, you should read this post. Or this one.

But even those posts focus mainly on one type of conversion spec: the Offsite Pixel. But this post is going to focus on conversion specs related specifically to ads promoting Page posts.

When you promote a Page post, Facebook automatically optimizes it for engagement — or a specific type of engagement. Facebook is making an assumption about the action you desire. It’s quite possible that your ads are not being optimized the way you’d prefer.

How to Change Conversion Specs

When you create your ad within Power Editor (and by now you should be doing this!), go to the final Pricing & Status tab.

By default, you will have “Optimized CPM” and “Automatically optimize for actions” selected.

Immediately below, there is a checkbox (unchecked by default) that allows you to “Overwrite the default conversion specs to define actions to optimize.” The default specs are grayed out unless that box is checked.

Once you check that box, you’ll typically only want to change the action itself and leave everything else.

The format of this is as follows (you edit areas marked by Xs):

[{"action.type":["XXXXXXXX"],”page”:["XXXXXXXX"],”post”:["XXXXXXXX"]}]

The purpose of this post is to focus on the action types that you can enter here related to optimizing for your Page posts.

Action Types for Page Posts

Here are examples of action types for Page posts:

• comment
• like
• link_click
• photo_view
• post
• post_engagement
• post_story
• receive_offer
• video_play

Simply enter these in place of “post_engagement” for the Action Type of your optimized ad.

Watch This Video

Still confused? Watch this quick video I created to help step you through it.

Go ahead and try it out. Experiment. And let me know the results you’re seeing below!

Need help? Schedule a one-on-one coaching call!

Facebook Conversion Specs: How to Optimize for Page Post Ad Actions is a post from: JonLoomer.com

John and I met at an NTEN conference in Atlanta about four years ago, and he’s also a very big reason why I’m doing what I’m doing today. Listen for more on why.

Following are some of the topics we discussed:

• The advantage of non-profits: Giving people meaning
• Differences and similarities in approach to and struggles with Facebook between non-profits and for-profits
• Facebook Insights and the stats that matter (Demographics, Talking About This, Frequency)
• Promoted Posts

Here are links to a few of the things mentioned on this show:

• Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
• Facebook Insights Helper
• A video on overcoming adversity
• Social Media Fundraising Club
• Facebook Marketing for Dummies

You can find John in the following places:

• JohnHaydon.com
• @JohnHaydon on Twitter
• Facebook.com/inboundzombie

Take a listen below. You also have several ways to access the Pubcast:

• iTunes
• Stitcher
• Libsyn

Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review! That’s how I reach more people. Thanks!

How to Get People Talking About Your Brand with John Haydon [Podcast] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

As always, I’ll be answering one of your questions every week. Great question this week from PonyBoy Press:

why aren’t tabs supported in mobile and why isn’t that clear when we’re being forced to use pay for apps(and tabs) for contests

This is something misunderstood by many — if not most — Facebook marketers. They create a Facebook tab and link to it, thinking everyone can see it.

Not true! If you use the direct link, it will not work on a mobile device. So, are you wasting money on tabs?

Nope. I use ShortStack (here’s a review I wrote). They provide a smart URL so that when you share it, anyone can see it.

I’m sure other services offer smart links as well, but ShortStack is the only one I use and can recommend.

Take a look! And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel!

Problem: Facebook Tabs Aren’t Mobile Friendly [VLOG] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

I can’t count the number of tweets or blog posts of Social Media marketers whining about their Facebook reach being too low. It’s kind of annoying, and I know it annoys Jon a lot. Well, you won’t have to annoy Jon anymore since your reach is back up!

And you know what? Your “real” reach was not down; it was just displayed incorrectly due to a bug on Facebook…

When Did It All Start?

It started at the end of August 2012. Suddenly, Facebook page owners saw their page and post reach going down like crazy. Some of them even reported an 80% drop. That was big! Jon was one of the first bloggers to report this anomaly in September.

Were they right to complain at that time? Absolutely! That drop was for real.

On the following screenshot from our Facebook page Barometer, you can see the evidence of the drop. And that graph is the result of the average viral reach for more than 3,500 pages of all sizes.

Pretty significant drop of viral reach at the end of August and beginning of September.

Weirdly enough, viral reach was the only metric affected; organic did not really change during that period. But as viral is a big part of total reach, total reach went down, too, as a result (simple math).

The Reaction

That whole reach issue started to fill the Social Media blogosphere. According to some, it was a plot from Facebook to force page owners to pay to reach their fans. Jon wrote a detailed post about this issue, a good read I recommend you check out!

Even TechCrunch was confused, posting conflicting articles confirming and denying the rumor within the same day! It’s been pretty hard for the rest of us to know where the real truth was.

The Correction

The truth was that actual reach was not down, but the way it was displayed was buggy!

On February 22nd, Facebook announced a bug that had been affecting reach reporting in its page insights. Actual reach was not affected, but stats were inaccurately reporting lower numbers.

In its announcement, Facebook has been rather vague on the actual effect of the bug they’d just killed. According to Facebook, page owners should have expected:

• Total reach to stay the same or increase for most Pages
• An increase in paid reach if you ran News Feed ads
• An increase or decrease in organic reach, depending on many factors such as the composition of your fan base, when and how often you post and your spending patterns
• A change in metrics computed from reach and impressions, such as engagement rate and virality

The Stats Since

So, thanks to that (not so) clear explanation from Facebook, the real question is whether or not your Facebook reach is really up.

The short answer is yes. But the reach metric that has increased is not the organic one, but viral.

Based on a sample of more than 3,000 pages of all sizes since February 21, organic reach has remained pretty steady while viral reach has increased by 200% on average. A pretty significant change.

Since February 21, based on a sample of more than 3,500 pages, the monthly viral reach statistics have gone from the equivalent of 100% of fan bases to almost 300%. Organic has remained pretty steady.

So, should you expect your organic reach to be the same, and your viral reach to have gone through the roof? Unfortunately, it is not that simple.

The bug was only affecting certain types of impressions (for example, paid impressions in news feed or impressions of shared content); the effect of that bug fix on your page statistics will vary greatly depending on your content strategy, posting frequency and type of engagement you were getting.

Based on the data we have for our biggest (and most active) clients, the impact on viral reach has gone anywhere from 100% to 1,000%! That means from twice to ten times as much viral reach. Viral being a big part of the total reach equation, total reach has been affected pro rata as a consequence.

In a nutshell, the magnitude of the increase in reach will vary greatly from one page to another.

But the good news is that the drop that everyone noticed at the beginning of September 2012 has been “erased” by the bug fix. Reach levels are now back to what they used to be in August 2012 and before.

Find Your Reach

Want to find out how your page’s reach has been affected by this bug fix? Try our free Facebook Page Barometer.

Let us know in the comments if you notice an increase in your organic or viral reach since the end of February. I’d love to know!

About Emeric Ernoult
Emeric is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for Facebook marketing. He is the founder of AgoraPulse, the first Facebook marketing and CRM software specially designed for small and medium-sized businesses. He has also launched the Facebook Page Performance Barometer, a free tool helping Facebook Page manager to better understand their performance on Facebook.

History of Facebook Reach: Where it Was, Where it Went, Where it is Now is a post from: JonLoomer.com

Many are reporting that when creating a new Facebook Offer, the option to “Promote later using another Facebook Ad tool” has been removed.

Here is how the fourth step of the Offer create flow appeared, complete with that option…

And now here’s how an Offer looks today, without that option…

Why This is a Problem

This is a problem because the cost of Facebook Offers has skyrocketed of late. Now when I create a Facebook Offer, my minimum cost is $80 with a max of $4,800.

The solution was previously to “promote later” and then create an ad within Power Editor. The reason you’d do this was to have full control over the cost, bid, targeting and placement to make it as efficient as possible.

Solution?

Yesterday, I created this test Offer…

I immediately paused the campaign. What’s interesting is that although you’re not supposed to reach anyone without promoting, I have reached 406 people organically and 21 people virally without spending a dime on promotion.

You probably want to reach more than 427 people with your Facebook Offer, but this is a good sign. I immediately went into Power Editor and created an ad promoting that piece of content. That ad was approved.

This ad is running for now. I’ll update here if anything changes.

Watch this video regarding how to create this ad in Power Editor. Of course, ignore the part about “Promote Later.”

In the end, this is a workaround. And as is the case with most workarounds on Facebook, even if it does work now it probably won’t work for long.

How About You?

Have you tried this? Let me know your results below!

Facebook Offers Option to Promote Later Removed [Do This] is a post from: JonLoomer.com

But there are far too many marketers who are polluting Facebook with baseless claims and ineffective strategies, resulting in many others following their collective lead.

So, here’s my attempt to do my part. Please stop doing these things.

1. Stop complaining to Fans about not being able to reach them

I thought we were done with this madness, but I still see it. Too many Facebook marketers have an unrealistic expectation regarding the number of Fans who will see a given post.

“Every Fan should see my posts! If they liked my Page, they want to see it!”

Meh. Come on.

If you have a basic understanding of math and online user behavior, you realize that most of your Fans won’t see your content whether EdgeRank existed or not.

You realize that only half of all users visit Facebook every day.

You realize that of those who do visit, the average user will only visit for 30-60 minutes.

You realize that your content is competing with mounds of posts from friends, family members, apps and other Pages.

You realize that on Twitter, even fewer of your followers will see a given post. A fraction, in fact.

You realize that a small percentage of your Fans actually care whether they see most or even some of your posts.

Yes, EdgeRank exists. Yes, Facebook may decide not to show your content to specific Fans who have shown no interest in your boring content. And yes, you may need to pay to reach some of your Fans.

But Facebook also helps surface your content to Fans who may have otherwise missed it. You blame EdgeRank, but in the end good content rises to the top and it will help you.

Still, you find the need to write posts that complain to your Fans about how you aren’t reaching them.

You know what? They don’t care.

The vast majority of your Fans who liked your Page don’t care if they see 100% of your posts. They won’t miss the ones they don’t see. By sharing a whiny post about how you can’t reach them, you may just drive the ones who do care away.

Don’t be fooled by the few Fans who sympathize with your plight. By complaining about this, you look unprofessional and you’re doing your brand and your message more harm than good.

2. Stop worrying about Reach

Oh, no! Your Reach is down!

Whoa, you should never share links because they reach fewer people!

Stop. Just stop. Please.

Reach isn’t completely worthless. But it’s close. It should be considered. But it doesn’t tell the story of whether your content succeeded or failed.

Reach is good as a reference point. But you should worry most about specific types of engagement that lead to a desired action.

Start focusing more on link clicks. And shares. And video plays. And whatever action it is that is central to your success.

Reach is far too flawed to trust. It’s far too inexact to be the focus of your campaign. And you’re far too sophisticated to lose sleep over it.

3. Stop creating fluff to drive fluff engagement

Woo hoo! Half of my Fans clicked Like on my cat meme! I’m awesome!

What’s that? How many link clicks did it drive? How many sales did it generate? Ummmmmmm…..

The problem with EdgeRank is that far too many marketers now try to manipulate it. They know that more engagement means more Reach. So they post a bunch of fluff that generates a ton of engagement.

A ton of meaningless engagement.

Look, having some fun with your Page is fine. Posting an occasional fluff piece of content that generates easy reactions can actually help you.

But stop making these types of posts central to your strategy.

You may generate plenty of engagement from memes, cat photos and other similar posts. But if you rely too heavily on them, you’ll start attracting the type of Fan who cares only about that stuff.

When you do that, you lose the Fan who actually cared about your product, service or niche. Some liked your Page because of the value you could add to that conversation.

And it’s this type of Fan — not the meme lover — who is most likely to result in business.

4. Stop worrying about number of Likes

Oh, no, my number of Likes dropped overnight!

Hey, look, I got 5,000 new Likes! None of them speak my native language, but… LOOK! More Likes!

This shouldn’t shock you, but it’s quality over quantity. The number is cosmetic. It means a little. But it doesn’t mean a lot.

If your ultimate goal is to drive meaningful traffic, interactions and business, you want quality Fans who actually care about your product or service.

If your Facebook Page isn’t driving meaningful traffic, interactions or business, it could be because you focused too heavily on quantity and not enough on quality.

Should you celebrate reaching new milestones? Sure. Should a number of Likes determine your success or failure? Absolutely not.

In the end, it’s just a number. You can’t trade in Likes for cash. Your measure of success will ultimately be determined by the number of desired actions your Fans and their connections perform, whether from a small or large pool.

5. Stop creating Promoted Posts

Facebook advertising is powerful. But if you are clicking that “Promote” or “Boost” button next to your post, you are not experiencing the true benefits of what Facebook has to offer.

I continuously hear complaints about how advertisers can no longer target Fans only with their Promoted Posts.

My response? Stop doing it.

Promoted Posts are intended for the beginner advertiser. It’s meant as an easy way to entice you to spend some money. But it is cookie cutter and only scratches the surface of what you can do.

You should still promote your content, but in much different ways. If you’ve read my content before, you’re likely tired of reading this: Use Power Editor.

6. Stop whining about changes

UGH! Facebook is rolling out a new News Feed! I want the old News Feed back!

Still more Facebook ad options? I can’t keep up! STOP WITH THE CHANGES!

I hate to sound harsh, but quit your whining.

I know you prefer the old News Feed. I know you prefer the old, old News Feed. I know you prefer the old, old, old News Feed. But it’s not coming back.

The old Facebook was primitive when it came to marketing. The targeting options were few. The advertising options were limited.

I won’t say that every change is good. But if you understand Facebook, you know that what is available to marketers today is far more powerful than what we had even a year ago.

Is it difficult to keep up? Maybe. Sure, it is. But it’s in the name of progress. These changes will ultimately help you.

Embrace them!

Start Doing These Things…

Now that you’ve stopped doing things, it’s time to focus on the right things.

Start experimenting.

Start embracing change.

Start researching the power of Facebook advertising.

Start focusing on the metrics that matter.

What would you add to the list? Let me know in the comments below!

6 Things Facebook Marketers Need to Stop Doing is a post from: JonLoomer.com